Dominions 2: King of Turn-Based MP Games

[Gandalf Parker]

PBEM definately creates a turn-based strategy game of excellence. I wish that some would make more use of its advantages in that you can have much larger maps than real-time games

Others that I feel excelled in that area were Stars!, VGAPlanets 3, and Space Empires IV. Particually the SEIV since I still bounce back and forth between that and Dom2. Ive also noticed that all of those games plus some other "not sure why its so popular" games like Master of Magic, all use a nation level rock-paper-scissors form of balancing (which is very difficult to do).

What really bugs me is that in all of the forums for such games there are always a large number people who dont understand what makes those games good, and try to suggest "improvments" toward unit balance or which would undo the PBEM. It can even feel as if those are the majority. I wonder how many possibly decent games were nerfed early in beta tests by developers who listened to the good meaning people who suggested it out of those areas.

[Agrajag]

Alneyan said:
Agreed. Heroes is plain awful in multiplayer (even with only two players)

Except when playing cooperatively with a friend in hotseat mod, against AIs.
This way you get a rest between turns and enjoy watching your friend play.
Though other than that, MP is terrible in HoMM.

As far as MP goes, the best I've seen is Dominions.

[Oversway]

Space Empires IV. Particually the SEIV since I still bounce back and forth between that and Dom2

I'll second what Gandalf Said. SEIV is a great "Offline-Simultaneous turn" game. The SEIV mods are really help the game shine, just like dom2.

[RibbonBlue]

Dom2 rocks.

[NTJedi]

I've always done HOMM_3 over a home LAN... which works fine. HOMM_4 had so many problems it only lasted about 3 weeks on the computer. HOMM_3 still lives on my computer.